What to do next?

Abstract

We have come to the end of our endeavour. It is time to review the objective we set ourselves at the beginning of this book. From any recent analysis of the competitive landscape in Asia you will have learned that some major changes are taking place. The emergence of China as a leader in manufacturing, and in the near future in design and development, and the rapid rise of India as a provider of IT and IT-enabled services, change the macroeconomic constraints under which other Asian firms have to operate. Competing on low-cost production and low sales prices is becoming increasingly difficult for firms from other parts of Asia. Also, within India and China the low-cost/low-price competition is constantly renewed and is moving inwards and towards more rural areas. For many firms the only effective response to this change in the competitive scene is to move up the value chain. That is what firms from the industrialized sectors such as Japan, Western Europe or the USA have done in the past. This is what Asian firms need to do today. Moving up the value chain will require more innovation. Innovation in products, services and processes is the only effective answer to this new competitive situation.